Let's talk about '00s bulgy circular fender flares

"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein) 06/24/2019 at 09:00 • Filed to: None

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Gather round younglings, and let’s set the wayback machine to a time at the turn of the century, when many, many carmakers decided that their cars needed to have large round fender flares.

The VW New Beetle launched in 1998 and was the first modern car with these fender flares, and in its case, they were obviously part of the Beetle aesthetic.

A year later, the Audi TT arrived, and really created the template for how these geometrically round fender flares would look on a car that isn’t a New Beetle.

In 2003 to 2007...everybody else went bonkers for these fender flares and jumped on the bandwagon. Were they inspired by the New Beetle or TT? We may never know.

And then, they died. Basically every car that adopted the flares removed them. The only cars that rolled with the flares for more than one generation are the Audi TT & Q7, Chrysler 300, Ford Escape, F-Series & Transit Connect, Honda Pilot, Kia Soul, Mazda 5, Nissan Z and Subaru Forester. Of those, the TT is about to be discontinued, the 5 is gone, and the Escape & Pilot have moved on to other designs without the flares.

Here’s a chronological timeline of cars of the aughts with bulgy circular fender flares. I’m only bothering with the US market because I don’t feel like tracking down pics of a bunch of Renaults and Citroens and Vauxhalls (oh my).

UPDATE: After I made this post, on my way home from work, I walked past row of cars in the garage at my office made entirely of vehicles on this list. Whoa.

1998

VW New Beetle

1999

Audi TT

2002

Saturn Vue

2003

Honda Element

Honda Pilot

Mazda RX-8

Nissan 350Z

Pontiac Vibe

2004

Cadillac XLR

Dodge Durango / Chrysler Aspen

Ford F-Series

Mazda 5

Nissan Maxima

Nissan Quest

Nissan Versa

2005

Chrysler 300

Ford Five Hundred / Mercury Montego

Ford   Freestyle

Ford Mustang

Land Rover LR3

Nissan Frontier

Nissan Pathfinder

Scion xA

2006

Audi Q7

Ford Expedition

Kia Rio

Mazda Miata

Mitsubishi Eclipse

2007

Acura MDX

Audi TT (generation two, electric boogaloo)

Dodge Caliber

Ford Edge / Lincoln MKX

Mazda CX-7

Mazda CX-9

Mercedes S-Class & CL-Class

Mitsubishi Outlander

Saturn Aura

2008

Chrysler Town & Country / Dodge Grand Caravan

Ford Escape

Ford Transit Connect

Nissan Rogue

Saturn Astra

Scion xB

Scion xD

Subaru Forester

2009

Acura TL

Acura TSX

Dodge Journey

Ford F-Series

Honda Pilot

Kia Soul

Mazda 6

Mercedes-Benz M-Class

Nissan 370Z

Nissan Murano

2010

Chevrolet Equinox

Chevrolet Spark

Mazda 3

Subaru Legacy / Outback

2011

Chrysler 300

Ford Explorer

Ford Fiesta

Hyundai Elantra

Mazda 5

Nissan NV

Saab 9-4X

Subaru Forester

2012

Chevrolet Sonic

Ford Focus

Hyundai Veloster

Mercedes-Benz C-Class

Subaru Impreza

VW Beetle

2013

Acura RDX

Ford C-Max

Ford Escape

Toyota RAV4

2014

Subaru Forester

2015

Audi TT and the Last Crusade

Ford F-Series

Ford Transit

Ford Transit Connect

2016

Audi Q7

2018*

Ford EcoSport

(*But it launched outside the US in 2013.)

2019

Subaru Forester

2020

Kia Soul

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > Textured Soy Protein 06/21/2019 at 15:44

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holly balls. lots of pics.

Also, profile has to be the worst angle for the versa

This is what we'll show whenever you publish anything on Kinja: > Textured Soy Protein 06/21/2019 at 15:45

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Textured Soy Protein > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever 06/21/2019 at 15:46

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Lots of pics for lots of bulgy circular fender flares!

Textured Soy Protein > This is what we'll show whenever you publish anything on Kinja: 06/21/2019 at 15:47

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These flares are far from circular. 

vicali > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever 06/21/2019 at 15:47

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tldr..

This is what we'll show whenever you publish anything on Kinja: > Textured Soy Protein 06/21/2019 at 15:48

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Semi

Textured Soy Protein > This is what we'll show whenever you publish anything on Kinja: 06/21/2019 at 15:50

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This is what we'll show whenever you publish anything on Kinja: > Textured Soy Protein 06/21/2019 at 15:52

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MM54 > Textured Soy Protein 06/21/2019 at 15:55

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bring back box flares

Boxer_4 > MM54 06/21/2019 at 15:59

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Ash78, voting early and often > Textured Soy Protein 06/21/2019 at 16:04

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You overlooked the other J Mays designs, which were the later 90s Passat and A6 — while the Beetle and TT were still mainstream cars, these other two were like “PUT ARCHES EVERYWHERE!”

The designs still hold up well and if you look back at the mid/late 90s, arched rooflines were almost nowhere to be found except for Citroen and a few others. Today it’s odd to see anything without a roof arch. It just makes structural and aero sense.

BigBlock440 > Textured Soy Protein 06/21/2019 at 16:06

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They’ve always been with us, and never really went away.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Textured Soy Protein 06/21/2019 at 16:09

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I got to enjoy this trend back in the ‘80s:

and still enjoy it today:

Textured Soy Protein > BigBlock440 06/21/2019 at 16:11

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Those are little round lips of fender flares, not the chunky, exaggerated TT style.

Textured Soy Protein > Ash78, voting early and often 06/21/2019 at 16:12

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The B5 Passat and C5 A6 certainly are very round but their flares aren't chunky enough to make the cut here.

M.T. Blake > Textured Soy Protein 06/21/2019 at 16:17

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I expected to be disappointed. I was not. That was the most detailed fender bulge  article I’ve ever seen.

Ash78, voting early and often > Textured Soy Protein 06/21/2019 at 16:18

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Ah, yeah — I was hung up on the arches over the flares. Great point all around. There are so many design cues that start out looking odd, or avant-garde, but quickly turn mainstream and then you forget things were ever different.

See also: The way fenders are “flattened” (1/2" - 1") on the outward facing edge. It’s for aero purposes, but also aesthetic. Hard to find a car today that doesn’t have them.

BigBlock440 > Textured Soy Protein 06/21/2019 at 16:23

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They’re at least as big as the Maxima, Versa, XLR, 500, Mustang, Xa, C-class, Explorer, etc. that you have posted.

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > Textured Soy Protein 06/21/2019 at 16:28

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More than the circular flares themselves what I really can’t handle is the lazy vertical drop off at the bottom creating the lip of the wheel well...I’m sure there’s a technical word for that I’m unaware of. One of the worst examples from your list (it’s the Nissan Altima if kinja’d)-

That’s like half a foot of just straight metal after going through the effort to make things all flowy and circular. I’m sure there’s a cost cutting reason that drives this to a large extent...just horrible, and hasn’t really gone away in many cars today.

ranwhenparked > Textured Soy Protein 06/21/2019 at 16:29

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The 300 and the Taurus always ticked me off because of the way the bulges interrupted such strong horizontal character lines. Both cars would look sleeker without such exaggerated flares.

Textured Soy Protein > BigBlock440 06/21/2019 at 16:31

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It’s not just down to size. The flares I'm talking about include a large flat or flat-ish surface with a crease at the top to separate it from the rest of the sheet metal. Yours don't have that.

OmerCarrothers333 > Textured Soy Protein 06/21/2019 at 17:55

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ALL YOUR FENDER-FLARES ARE BELONG TO US!!!!

Nauraushaun > Textured Soy Protein 06/21/2019 at 19:57

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How...did you convince Kinja to let you post this many images without exploding?

Also how cool is the RX-8

facw > Textured Soy Protein 06/24/2019 at 09:20

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I feel like you are conflating at least two different styles of wheel flares. You have:

Big round wheel flares where there is a crease separating the flare from the fender/quarter panel (and possibly a sub-category where there is a recessed crease to highlight even more)

Big round wheel flares where there is a large flat section on the outside, whether or not the flare is creased where it meets the bodywork.

Flares that have both elements.

I think these features create significantly different visual looks, and it feels weird to me to lump them together.

And the Beetle in the lead image strikes me as something entirely else, there’s a clear distinction between the wheel covering and the hood/body, but they also flow into the bodywork at front and rear instead of being a tacked on to the side.

Textured Soy Protein > facw 06/24/2019 at 09:44

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You’re not wrong. 

But. T he overall trend, regardless of the exact way the surfaces are formed, was large, circular fender flares.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Textured Soy Protein 06/24/2019 at 10:05

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The flat cut ones are the current modern style. They’re lightly flared and flat, which seems to run all the way back the the transition from the 90s to the 00s. The 90s didn’t have many distinctive wheel arches, aiming for more of a “melted ”, bulbous  look.

Textured Soy Protein > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 06/24/2019 at 10:10

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Now, loads of cars have that flat edge on their wheel arches. B ut it’s small, like maybe an inch or two.

Not exactly like the ’00s flat style.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Textured Soy Protein 06/24/2019 at 10:18

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I disagree. Some of these are extraordinary examples, but they’re all coming from the same concept of this flat plane surface around the wheels .

The flat surface was there in many cases before this , it just grew to immense size during this era. Like a 90s Civic has these, too, but they’re only about an inch wide.

Textured Soy Protein > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 06/24/2019 at 11:01

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What’s the disagreement? There were flat planes on fender flares well before the ’00s, and they’re on basically every car now.

The big giganto flat planes that appeared for a while were, in my mind, part of the overall big giganto fender flare trend.

Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now) > Textured Soy Protein 06/24/2019 at 11:15

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The OG Audi TT Coupe is still one of the best looking cars ever made imo. Such a clean geometric design.